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Hi everyone, I'm sorry Bernie and I haven't updated much in such a long time, but we're back again and with all the expansions and improvements that have been introduced since we started, we figured it was best to make a fresh start. With all the improvements made to the Thirty Years War and the Napoleonic campaigns, we decided that a European country that could get involved militarily would be the most entertaining. We went with Sweden, and although nothing is set in stone, we plan on going protestant when the reformation breaks out and using that as an opportunity to become a dominant military power in Europe.
But our first goal was clearly to get ourselves out from under Denmark's thumb, and because of our sizeable navy we decided it was best to rebel immediately, and block the straights between Sweden and mainland Denmark. Unfortunately Denmark had several allies who came to their aid, but with naval supremacy in the Baltic no one other than Norway committed significant forces to support Denmark.
An amazing event went off within the first few years of play and we got to generate a general at 100 army tradition. He had something like 4 fire and 5 shock, so even though our manpower was limited, taking care of the Norwegian army wasn't much of an issue. Denmark had some small garrisons on the islands in the Baltic, which we were also able to pick off and win the war.
In order to keep our eastern boarder safe, we decided to be nice to Novgorod for the time being. Besides, they tend to be overrun by an ambitious Muscovy, and we wanted to make sure that didn't happen. A united Russia immediately to our east with vast stores of manpower is never welcome. By 1463, we were making 5.2 ducats a month, our stability was excellent, and we had accrued 67 prestige. We quickly hired 3 advisors all providing 1 point in each area, and set our national focus to military. Since the first Swedish king must have been a genius, in all we were making 7 admin, 8 diplo and 8 military points per month.
Novgorod went to war with Muscovy, intending to take Yaroslavo. We are in an alliance with Novgorod and decided to support them, as Muscovy tends to be more powerful militarily. Also, we went with the defensive military idea group. Denmark and Norway seized their chance and attacked us, but we were able to besiege the Danish capital and force them and Norway out of the war, and grab a few more provinces while we were at it.
Then we sent our troops into Novgorod to destroy invading Muscovite forces, so Novgorod could carve up Muscovy in peace. Muscovy was left with no one to defend their home provinces, so Novgorod quickly racked up a high war score and forced Muscovy to seed four provinces to them. Meanwhile, our legitimacy rose to 50, which was a relief as we were a little nervous about a peasant's war breaking out, due to our low legitimacy and shrinking manpower pool.
But our string of successes meant we wanted to look for more territory, so we decided to fabricate claims on the Livonian Order, to our southeast and in 1471 we declared war. At the same time, we were dragged into another war, but only against more distant states who wouldn't bother to invade us, such as Burgundy and Venice. Needless to say, we didn't plan on actually fighting in it, but felt we ought to honour our alliance with Austria. We used an event to get 5 papal influence, which seems to be really useful but I'm not sure how to exploit my influence effectively yet.
While at war with the Livonian Order heretic rebels rose up and took one of our provinces, we had to let them hold onto it until our conquest is complete. Austria accepted a white peace with Burgundy, but still has to deal with several other threats. Unfortunately, with the war with the Livonian Order dragging on, our king died and pretender rebels spawned, as our manpower pool was running especially low. So we had to recruit a mercenary army of 7000 in order to break the sieges on our home provinces, but it all worked out and our fledgling empire is off to a great start.
We've played past this point, so I will post again soon continuing to summarize our game so far, but any questions, thoughts or ideas are welcome. One question I have for you all is should we try and form Scandinavia? We'll lose our unique Swedish bonuses but will get a significant manpower boost, which will be needed if we go protestant.
But our first goal was clearly to get ourselves out from under Denmark's thumb, and because of our sizeable navy we decided it was best to rebel immediately, and block the straights between Sweden and mainland Denmark. Unfortunately Denmark had several allies who came to their aid, but with naval supremacy in the Baltic no one other than Norway committed significant forces to support Denmark.
An amazing event went off within the first few years of play and we got to generate a general at 100 army tradition. He had something like 4 fire and 5 shock, so even though our manpower was limited, taking care of the Norwegian army wasn't much of an issue. Denmark had some small garrisons on the islands in the Baltic, which we were also able to pick off and win the war.
In order to keep our eastern boarder safe, we decided to be nice to Novgorod for the time being. Besides, they tend to be overrun by an ambitious Muscovy, and we wanted to make sure that didn't happen. A united Russia immediately to our east with vast stores of manpower is never welcome. By 1463, we were making 5.2 ducats a month, our stability was excellent, and we had accrued 67 prestige. We quickly hired 3 advisors all providing 1 point in each area, and set our national focus to military. Since the first Swedish king must have been a genius, in all we were making 7 admin, 8 diplo and 8 military points per month.
Novgorod went to war with Muscovy, intending to take Yaroslavo. We are in an alliance with Novgorod and decided to support them, as Muscovy tends to be more powerful militarily. Also, we went with the defensive military idea group. Denmark and Norway seized their chance and attacked us, but we were able to besiege the Danish capital and force them and Norway out of the war, and grab a few more provinces while we were at it.
Then we sent our troops into Novgorod to destroy invading Muscovite forces, so Novgorod could carve up Muscovy in peace. Muscovy was left with no one to defend their home provinces, so Novgorod quickly racked up a high war score and forced Muscovy to seed four provinces to them. Meanwhile, our legitimacy rose to 50, which was a relief as we were a little nervous about a peasant's war breaking out, due to our low legitimacy and shrinking manpower pool.
But our string of successes meant we wanted to look for more territory, so we decided to fabricate claims on the Livonian Order, to our southeast and in 1471 we declared war. At the same time, we were dragged into another war, but only against more distant states who wouldn't bother to invade us, such as Burgundy and Venice. Needless to say, we didn't plan on actually fighting in it, but felt we ought to honour our alliance with Austria. We used an event to get 5 papal influence, which seems to be really useful but I'm not sure how to exploit my influence effectively yet.
While at war with the Livonian Order heretic rebels rose up and took one of our provinces, we had to let them hold onto it until our conquest is complete. Austria accepted a white peace with Burgundy, but still has to deal with several other threats. Unfortunately, with the war with the Livonian Order dragging on, our king died and pretender rebels spawned, as our manpower pool was running especially low. So we had to recruit a mercenary army of 7000 in order to break the sieges on our home provinces, but it all worked out and our fledgling empire is off to a great start.
We've played past this point, so I will post again soon continuing to summarize our game so far, but any questions, thoughts or ideas are welcome. One question I have for you all is should we try and form Scandinavia? We'll lose our unique Swedish bonuses but will get a significant manpower boost, which will be needed if we go protestant.
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Thanks for the update and the news about the new start, Sounds like an interesting opening.
And here is a screenshot of the current situation:
http://cloud-2.steamusercontent.com/ugc/26227254669251386/74A907641D239A9D02D60492B5C9D2F76184AB53/
http://cloud-2.steamusercontent.com/ugc/26227254669251386/74A907641D239A9D02D60492B5C9D2F76184AB53/
Hi Everyone!
I'm sorry it's been such a long time since Bernie or I have last posted here. We have managed to play a few games in the last three years, but time has been limited due to Bernie's extensive schooling, our respective girlfriends demanding we spend more time with them than on grand strategy games and my struggles to build an English teaching career in Japan. We did have one amazing game as Korea around 18 months ago where we patiently constructed a vast Trans pacific empire capped off with an invasion of France in the last two decades of the game. We managed to take Paris, but just as the game was ending there was a pan European coalition with the sole purpose of wiping us out. If we played fair with the AI, I'm not sure we would have survived, but my recollection of the details is foggy. We ended the game with a bang anyhow.
I've been keeping track of all the updates to EU4, the release of HOI4 and Stelaris and all the improvements to Crusader Kings 2 as well. I'm always blown away by how the Paradox team strives to make the most in-depth and fulfilling strategy experiences out there. We should all strive to match their work ethic.
Björn got in touch with us and said he would like to tell our story at PDXCon in May, and I was overjoyed and humbled to hear it. I'm thrilled that Bernie and I made a small but lasting impact on the community. Anyways, I'll quit rambling. Happy gaming everyone.
I'm sorry it's been such a long time since Bernie or I have last posted here. We have managed to play a few games in the last three years, but time has been limited due to Bernie's extensive schooling, our respective girlfriends demanding we spend more time with them than on grand strategy games and my struggles to build an English teaching career in Japan. We did have one amazing game as Korea around 18 months ago where we patiently constructed a vast Trans pacific empire capped off with an invasion of France in the last two decades of the game. We managed to take Paris, but just as the game was ending there was a pan European coalition with the sole purpose of wiping us out. If we played fair with the AI, I'm not sure we would have survived, but my recollection of the details is foggy. We ended the game with a bang anyhow.
I've been keeping track of all the updates to EU4, the release of HOI4 and Stelaris and all the improvements to Crusader Kings 2 as well. I'm always blown away by how the Paradox team strives to make the most in-depth and fulfilling strategy experiences out there. We should all strive to match their work ethic.
Björn got in touch with us and said he would like to tell our story at PDXCon in May, and I was overjoyed and humbled to hear it. I'm thrilled that Bernie and I made a small but lasting impact on the community. Anyways, I'll quit rambling. Happy gaming everyone.
Welcome to Paradox Plaza. Your post inspires me. May you have a pleasant and productive journey in this forum.
